Various disposable pads are known in the art for a variety of uses. In particular, pads may be used to apply materials such as powders, fluid, creams, or foams to a surface, including the human body. For example, pads may be used to apply cosmetic powders, tonics, cleansing fluids, creams, ointments, or lotions to the human skin, or to apply polish or polish remover to fingernails or toenails. Such pads may also be used to polish surfaces, such as fingernails or toenails, or, especially if formed from an absorbent material, to wipe surfaces or to absorb fluids or other materials. For the sake of convenience, such pads are hereinafter referenced as "applicator pads."
Given such uses, it has become desirable to provide such applicator pads, particularly absorbent pads, with a fluid impervious backing layer on the proximal face of the pad material (the "base pad"). Such a backing layer prevents any moisture absorbed by the base pad from passing to and soiling or contaminating the user's hand or fingers which are gripping the applicator pad. Such backing layers have also proven to be quite useful in directing the material being applied by the applicator pad to the proper target area, rather than being diverted to the user's hand or finger which is applying the material. However, the fluid impervious materials that are typically used to form such materials are often relatively slippery. Thus, during application, the user must tightly grip the proximal face of the applicator pad, possibly to the extent that the distal face (the application face that contacts the working surface to be contacted by the applicator pad) is wrinkled by such gripping, thus reducing the usable surface area of the distal face. If the user does not tightly grip the proximal face, then the user risks slipping relative to the applicator pad and potentially completely losing hold of the pad.
One solution to the above-described drawback associated with applicator pads having a fluid impervious backing layer is the provision of a handle on the backing layer. Because the applicator pads are often stacked for storage, it is desirable that the handle be movable between a use position, in which the handle is upright and transverse to the plane of the pad, and a storage position, in which the handle is flattened and substantially coplanar with the plane of the pad. It is further desirable to form the handle from a thin material such that the folded handles do not significantly add to the storage space required to store applicator pads having such handles. Such handles have been formed as either separately attached components formed from a thin material, or as an integral element formed by folding or pinching a portion of the backing layer before securing the backing layer to the pad itself. In either case, the handle is formed from a relatively thin material.
Because the handle is formed from a thin material, and particularly when the handle is formed from a fluid-impervious material such as used to form the backing layer, the user may have difficulty with initially grasping the handle and raising it to an upright, use position. It therefore would be desirable to provide a handle that is readily distinguished from the backing layer of an applicator pad and lifted therefrom into a use position.